


some assembly required

by rangerhitomi



Category: Cardfight!! Vanguard
Genre: Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, IKEA Furniture, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-02
Updated: 2019-04-02
Packaged: 2020-01-01 07:59:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,364
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18331904
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rangerhitomi/pseuds/rangerhitomi
Summary: Aichi and Kai get a new bed.





	some assembly required

**Author's Note:**

  * For [AbsoluteTempest](https://archiveofourown.org/users/AbsoluteTempest/gifts).



> there's no ikea furniture building in the vanguard fandom so i'm here to fix that

Aichi and Kai have been through more trials together in the past eight years than most people have in a lifetime; their relationship survived Psyqualia (mostly Aichi’s fault), Link Joker (entirely Kai’s fault), Aichi sealing himself with the Void on the moon (Aichi’s fault but only because of how badly Kai messed up with Link Joker), Kai moving to France (Kai’s fault), Aichi moving to America (Aichi’s fault), their reunion as the world came dangerously close to ending (surprisingly neither of their faults this time, as Aichi was on summer vacation and Kai was too busy adopting middle schoolers to get into trouble). 

But their relationship was about to have its first big test in three years, ever since they finally faced their biggest fear and decided to move in together.

“Ready?” Aichi’s voice is strained, breathless. He’s exhausted already and they’d barely begun; this is a bad start, Kai thinks. 

“I… I think so.” Kai’s voice is weary. “Do we have everything?”

“Yeah. Yeah, I double checked.”

“Why couldn’t we have just…”

“It’s too big, I told you.”

“Okay, okay… let’s get this over with.”

When they first moved in together, they shared Aichi’s old bed; it worked for them well enough at first, despite being too small for two people to share comfortably sometimes, but the bed was old and, well, occasionally had too much (sometimes rough) use. 

So it was time for a new bed, and the only solution for them was to purchase one. Fully assembled, it would have been too big to transport and fit into the apartment, so they had to buy one labeled “easy home assembly” - though, judging by the six different kinds of screws and eighteen individual pieces of the bed frame, Kai is sure it’s going to be anything but easy. 

He’s right.

“Put, put piece K with piece J.”

“With what screw.”

“Um…” Aichi squints at the instruction manual before holding it out to Kai. “I can’t tell if it’s A or B.”

They pore over it for nearly two minutes, consulting the page containing all of the pieces, holding them up to the images on the diagram. 

“Why aren’t these drawn to scale!” Kai says exasperatedly, gesturing at the papers. “More importantly, why are  _ you  _ having a hard time with this? You’re  _ literally  _ a rocket scientist.”

“I think it’s these ones,” Aichi says, opting to ignore Kai’s slight against him as he holds up one bag of screws, “since the tops are rounder.”

Kai sees no difference between them, but he trusts that Aichi’s trained eyes can see what he cannot. He holds the screw in place as Aichi shuffles through miscellaneous bed pieces for a screwdriver. 

The morning drags into the early afternoon, and Kai is exhausted and hungry, so he offers to make a quick lunch; Aichi, surrounded by papers and slabs of wood, looks more tired and hungrier than Kai, and he nods mutely at the instructions for the headboard. 

Living in France taught Kai to make a decent sandwich, and generally Aichi is content letting Kai spend two hours in the kitchen cooking, because Kai enjoys the process and Aichi enjoys the end result. But today, Kai hears Aichi hissing English slang from their bedroom and decides to throw together a simple  _ jambon beurre  _ to keep Aichi from having a complete breakdown on his own and returns to the bedroom to Aichi sitting in the middle of the bed frame, cross-legged and pouting as he twists a hex key in a socket. 

“Hey,” Kai says soothingly, sitting behind him with his legs out to either side of Aichi. “Have a bite.”

He reaches around Aichi from behind with half the sandwich in his hand and lets Aichi bite into it while Aichi moves onto the next socket. This arrangement continues, with Kai taking a bite every time Aichi is busy chewing his, until they complete the sandwich and Aichi leans back into Kai, eyes closed. 

“Thanks for the food,” he mumbles.

Kai kisses his forehead. “Of course. I’ll be right back, I’m going to put this in the sink.”

Aichi nods and forces himself to sit up as Kai heads out of the room with the empty plate. He’s gone for maybe twenty seconds before he hears Aichi yell “damn it!” in very frustrated English and has to admire how America was able to have such an impact on Aichi’s vocabulary. 

“What’s wrong?” he asks, walking back in on Aichi sitting with a cross beam in his hand. 

“This is too short! It’s three whole centimeters short!” Aichi lays out the beam, connecting both sides of the bed frame together in the middle, to demonstrate. Sure enough, it barely sits wide enough to stay in place, let alone be secured. 

Kai kneels on the ground on the other side of the bed frame. “Are the other ones wide enough?”

“Yes, just not this one.”

“Do we need that one?”

Aichi blows out, his bangs fluttering to the side. “For optimal support, yes.”

“Can we do without it for a bit until we can order a new one?”

Silence.

“Oh. I… didn’t think about that.”

Kai reaches out and takes the malformed beam from Aichi’s hands. “It’s okay. Look, it’s finished aside from that, right?”

“Yeah. We just have to put the mattress on now.”

They collect spare bolts and screws from across the floor and collect the twist ties and plastic baggies, sorting everything between trash and recycling, until the room is tidy again. The mattress waits in the living room, and Aichi offers to shuffle it to the bedroom while Kai runs the garbage outside.

When he returns, the mattress is on the bed frame and Aichi is waiting with a smile on his face.

_ That  _ kind of smile. 

Aichi tugs at the front of Kai’s shirt until Kai bends his neck and Aichi is finally able to reach Kai’s lips; even years after their first kiss, each new kiss fills Kai with the same nervous excitement, those same butterflies burning in his torso. He always lets Aichi lead, climbing to his tiptoes with his arms draped around Kai’s shoulders, Kai’s arms around Aichi’s waist, and he is able to lift Aichi a few inches off the floor so they can kiss at eye level. 

It’s always exhilarating when Aichi gives Kai a gentle push toward the bed - and this would be their first time on this bed, this bed that they built together - and Kai tumbles onto his back, pulling Aichi along with him, reveling in the warm weight of Aichi’s body on his. 

They kiss, and kiss more, and Aichi presses his lips to Kai’s neck and collarbones, and under the soft part of his chin, and along his jaw and tugs at Kai’s earlobes with his teeth and when Kai finally gets Aichi’s lips back on his, Aichi pulls away with a wet squelching noise, his eyes wide with some unseen realization.

“What,” Kai rasps, his lips swollen from the kisses and his body screaming for more. 

Aichi stares at the wall for a moment before looking back at Kai’s face. His expression is blank. “We forgot to get a boxspring for the mattress.”

Part of Kai wants to laugh, but Aichi is well and truly mortified so Kai refrains and wraps his arms around Aichi’s torso instead. "I see." 

“Without that support beam and a boxspring, the mattress is going to start sagging under our weight,” Aichi whispers into Kai’s neck.

“Hey, it’s okay. We can get one tomorrow, I’m too tired to worry about it right now.” When Aichi bites his own swollen lip in concentration, Kai reaches up and tucks Aichi’s bangs behind his ear. “Look, you worked hard today. Don’t worry, we can take care of it tomorrow. We deserve to have a relaxing evening, right?”

The alarm melts from Aichi’s face; he relaxes back into Kai’s body and runs his finger over Kai’s lips. “Mm, you’re right…” That mischievous smile creeps up again. “Are you sure you’re going to relax?”

A strangled laugh escapes Kai’s throat as their mouths meet again and they sink into their new bed at last.

**Author's Note:**

> they do not do a lot of relaxing for the next twenty minutes


End file.
